The History of Gold

ISBN-13: 9783565090051 / Angielski / Miękka / 2025 / 196 str.

Auke de Haan

Opis

Gold kicked off as stardust from exploding suns, crashing to Earth where Mesopotamians hammered it into temple sheaths around 4000 BC, a gleam that lured pharaohs to mine Nubian sands for eternity's bling. Greeks philosophized its purity, Romans stamped emperors on aurei coins that greased legions from Britain to Babylon, while medieval alchemists bubbled lead in vain quests for the stuff. It was a lure that built pyramids and broke backs, from Byzantine icons winking in candlelight to Viking hoards buried under rune stones, proving the yellow devil danced through history's dark corners.The rush hit fever pitch: California's '49ers panning Sutter's streams into million-dollar mud, Klondike's '98 stampede freezing fools in Yukon snows, and South Africa's Witwatersrand reefs fueling apartheid's iron fist. Empires rose on its back-Spain's armadas bloated with Inca ingots that sank in storms, Britain's standard pegging pounds to its weight till wars weighed it down. Crises cracked it open: '29's crash hoarding bars in vaults, Nixon's '71 snip floating currencies free, turning gold from money to mania.Today, it hides in circuit boards and central bank bunkers, a hedge against hyperinflation while satellites spot veins from space. Gold's history isn't a quiet cache-it's a hammer that forged fortunes and fractures, a reminder that the shine we chase often blinds us to the shadows.

Gold kicked off as stardust from exploding suns, crashing to Earth where Mesopotamians hammered it into temple sheaths around 4000 BC, a gleam that lured pharaohs to mine Nubian sands for...